Emergency Deflasking of P. lobbii - Orchid Board

OzPhal · #1 03-01-2012, 07:57 PM

Hi Everybody,

It's been a while since I last posted so g'day to everybody again!

I'm just needing some advice - I received a flask of P. lobbii last night that had been really beaten around by our postal system! Sadly, if I wanted to save any of them, I had to deflask! they could have really done with another 8 weeks in the flask!

In any case I washed them out, rinsed off the residual media and let them air dry on paper towel for a period of time. I purchased a heated propagating tray from Bunnings and also some Sphagnum Moss. After the seedlings had hardened off a little I put them in a compot with finely chopped sphag... some of the seedlings were so small I couldn't get any roots down in to the sphag so they're literally sitting on the surface with a few strands covering over what roots they have. The compot is now in the heated propagaring tray - I'm maintaining the temperature around 25oC (77oF) and I'm regularly misting the surface of the moss and the leaves to maintain humidity - there is plenty of condensation inside the enclosure (the downside of that is it's the perfect environment for fungus so I'll have to keep a close eye on that). Is there anything that anyone would do differently? I know some will say I should have dipped them in fungicide first but I'm worried with their being so small and tender that it could have done more harm than good... any thoughts?

I've also got a recently purchased seedling of P. tetraspis & P. violacea'Blue' keeping them company. I received them bare root so I've potted them in sphag at the moment until I can get some potting media together - the continous warmer temperatures will encourage vegetative growth correct?